By Achara Ashayagachat
Health advocates have urged Asean governments to print the World Health Organisation (WHO)-advised picture warnings on cigarette packs as part of Sunday’s World No Tobacco Day.
The Bangkok-based Southeast Asia Tobacco Control Alliance (Seatca) has called on governments in the region to immediately implement their commitments under the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control.
So far only Thailand, Singapore, Malaysia and Brunei have pictorial health warnings on cigarette packs, said Seatca director Bungon Ritthiphakdee.
“We are calling on Asean governments who are lagging behind to follow suit and pass laws requiring strong, prominent pictorial health warnings as required by the WHO framework.
“Pictorial pack warnings are one of the best ways to educate the more than 100 million smokers in the region on the dangers of smoking. It does not cost governments much money to implement this measure,” said Ms Bungon.
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Under the framework, parties are given a three-year deadline to implement Article 11 of the WHO framework which states warning messages on tobacco product packs should cover at least 50% of the principal display areas of the package. It also requires that multiple health warning messages be rotated, encourages the use of pictures and pictograms and prohibits misleading terms such as light and mild, or low tar.
The Philippines, Cambodia and Vietnam missed their 2008 deadline to introduce prominent health warnings on tobacco packs. Laos has only a few months left to comply.
“Tobacco companies use graphics on their packs to attract established smokers and first-time smokers among teenagers. But when governments want to use graphics on packs to educate smokers, the companies fight these measures as they are in the Philippines, Malaysia and Indonesia,” Ms Bungon said.
Indonesia has not ratified the WHO framework and is lagging far behind other Asean countries in tobacco control measures.
Studies in the region have found that prominent graphic warnings on cigarette packs are far more effective in educating smokers and the public in general.
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